Sweden’s influential right-wing populists to review EU membership
Sweden’s European Union membership needs to be “reviewed”, the influential eurosceptic Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson told Aftonbladet in an interview on Tuesday as Sweden is still to hold the six-month EU presidency until the end of June.
Åkesson’s party, while not part of the ruling coalition, offers the necessary support to the centre-right government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, but expects the implementation of their policies, namely on migration, in return.
“With more and more elements of far-reaching symbolic politics, EU membership is becoming dangerously similar to a straitjacket that we simply must accept and relate to,” said Åkesson, adding that Sweden’s influence over EU policy is too small to make any real difference.
“This means that German, Polish or French politicians can in practice decide which car you can buy, how expensive petrol should be, or which trees you can cut down on your own land,” he also said.
“In line with this development, the will of the people, as reflected in the results of the parliamentary elections, will become less and less relevant. Our general elections in Sweden will soon be irrelevant to Sweden’s development. Of course, we can’t have that”, he added.
Åkesson’s statements caused quite a stir in the Swedish opposition.
“I am not surprised, like many extreme right-wing populist parties across the EU, the Sweden Democrats have no interest in finding common solutions through democratic EU collaboration,” Green MEP Alice Kuhnke told EURACTIV, criticising Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in the process.
“This does not only put Kristersson in an awkward position, it undermines the legitimacy of his government and the Swedish Council presidency”, she said.
She specifically regrets that while defending democracy and the rule of law is a main priority of the Swedish presidency, Kristersson’s government is “actively collaborating and relying on those who undermine these very values”.
Centre Party (Renew Europe) MEP Abir Al-Sahlani also expressed her concerns.
“Jimmie Åkesson and his party don’t shy away from lying about the EU to rile up their voter base and it’s been clear for a while that they intend to make the EU elections next year about Sweden being in or out the EU,” she told EURACTIV.
“We still have a couple of months to go and expect the government will make it very clear that they cannot be blackmailed into blocking anything that the Sweden Democrats don’t like”, she added.
Al-Sahlani further reminded that the Sweden Democrats have recently threatened to withdraw from the coalition agreement supporting the ruling government over the EU Migration Pact, recently voted by the European Parliament.
Within the government, too, voices were raised, with Swedish Employment Minister and Liberal party leader Johan Pehrson strongly reacting to Åkesson’s declarations.
“It is completely out of the question that we would reconsider our EU membership,” Pehrson wrote on Twitter, adding that the fact that anyone “can even think about it” after Brexit is, according to him, difficult to understand.
Sweden currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU and will relinquish it to Spain on 31 June.
(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com)
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